Reality Check

It’s often hard to know where to turn when you need some support or a release. Reality Check provides a way to share students' stories with others who can relate to them. Reality Check attempts to help students deal with the problems at hand by including information written by a licensed therapist and a list of researched resources. These are designed to provide honest and fresh assistance that is neither condescending nor generic.

The students of Reality Check believe that our problems and the choices we make are not unique to our generation. What is unique, perhaps, is our desire to break the code of silence, a code that often leads to feelings of isolation and despair. We provide an opportunity for students like to express their feelings and receive validation, a chance to understand our peers’ struggles and tools to help us cope.

Reality Check is a voice of one student, of a group of students, and the student body as a whole. It represents a unity that students might usually not have.

Reality Check is published 8 times a year and it is mailed to all LGHS households, unless declined by the family.

If you have a story that you would like to share, here are the two ways to submit stories:

1.) Give your story to a student staff member. To assure anonymity, your name will never be shared (even with other staff members).

2.) Put your story in the Reality Check box in the Library at the entrance of Ms. Cozzella's office.

If we receive a story discussing a specific plan for suicide or homicide, or information about physical abuse, we are required by law to contact the person who submitted the story to verify that the student's parents are aware of the situation and/or that the student is under the care of a professional.

"We have all known pain. We have all known life. We have grieved over the death of a parent, a sibling’s drug use, suicide and depression, rape, and the divorce of parents. Among us are alcoholics and addicts, some in recovery, some still in the disease. In our short years of life, we have witnessed battles against anorexia, bulimia, mental illness and violent homes. We have fought, cried, begged, screamed, mourned and pleaded. Some of us won. Some of us lost. And some of us are just beginning.” (LGHS student)